1979-1981Los Angeles Superior Court - Special Consultant on School Desegregation

1976-1978Rose Institute of State and Local Government - Acting Director

Claremont McKenna College - Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science (Urban Politics and Public Policy)

1974-1976Wellesley College - Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science (Urban Politics and Public Policy)

1972-1974University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Center for Urban and Regional Studies - Senior Research Associate

Department of Political Science - Lecturer

Helene V. SmooklerOf Counsel

Helene Smookler has over 30 years experience in state and local government policy and planning and environmental law. Her practice focuses on environmental law, including CEQA, air quality, greenhouse gases, transportation, goods movement, housing, environmental justice and other regional issues. Recent CEQA matters include Port of Los Angeles, Los Angeles World Airways, California Public Utilities Commission, Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency, ITCF JPA and County of Los Angeles projects. A significant part of Ms. Smookler's practice also involves mediation of complex public policy disputes, principally environmental and land use issues. Helene Smookler was formerly Chief Counsel at the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG). Prior to joining SCAG, she was an attorney at the Center for Law in the Public Interest, where her cases included Century Freeway (Keith v. Volpe). Earlier in her career, she was a special consultant to the court during the Los Angeles School desegregation (Crawford v. LAUSD). She has published extensively in the area of public policy and planning, including housing, transportation, education and dispute resolution. In addition to her legal practice, Ms. Smookler is an Adjunct Professor at USC's School of Policy, Planning and Development where she teaches Public Policy Dispute Resolution.